Every blog needs a beginning. Here are a few beginnings from some of my favourite books:
Sun Tzu said:
The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
Translated by Lionel Giles, edited by James Clavell
I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies. My posture is consciously congruent to the shape of my hard chair. This is a cold room in University Administration, wood walled, Remington-hung, double-windowed against the November heat, insulated from Administrative sounds by the reception area outside, at which Uncle Charles, Mr. deLint and I were lately received.
I am in here.
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Aleksey Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of a landowner in our district, Fyodor Karamazov, so noted in his time (and even now still recollected among us) for his tragic and fishy death, which occurred just thirteen years ago and which I shall report in its proper context.
The Brothers Karamazov , Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by David McDuff
Matter-of-fact beginnings, all. So I will be too. This’ll be a blog about books.